rejoice with us friends , this is from the director of our graduate studies at wtc/s
Love
Emma K
Dear praying friend,
Rejoice with us in the progress the Lord is enabling here in Uganda. We have been very encouraged with the developments concerning Westminster Theological College and the new Seminary. We have seen the wind of the Lord filling our sails and moving us along in wonderful ways. As we have shared in our emails, our partnership with Birmingham Theological Seminary has been approved. We will offer our first master's level class for Westminster Theological Seminary on January 22 to 26. It will be taught by the outgoing President of Birmingham Theological Seminary, Dr Howard Eyrich. Howard and Pam Eyrich will arrive on Friday. Howard will meet on Friday with the WTC Fauculty to hammer out many details regarding the Seminary in preparation to make recommendations to the Board of Trustees on Saturday. There will be a ground-breaking ceremony at the new campus site after the Trustees meeting. The Convocation and Inaugeration service for the Seminary will be this Sunday at 4:00 PM at Zana Community Presbyterian Church. I wish you could be present physically, and am thankful that you will be present with us in spirit. Information on these events is attached.
We are now facing some wonderful problems with WTC and WTS. The College enrollment looks like it will grow from 22 last semester to over 40 in February. We will be more than maxed out on dorm space. We had thought that the Seminary would start with 4 or 5. We have done no advertising and already we have 26 master's students enrolled for our first course. The master's students, at this point, will be residential only for one week, so they will not add to our dorm-space problem. We often get feedback from Africans of deep gratitude for the Seminary that has been prayed for and waited for over many years. So we sense that we have stepped into a situation the Lord has been preparing a long time. Darlene has been busy as she serves as the Registrar for both the College and Seminary.
Thanks for praying for this work to build the Bride and extend the kingdom in Africa.
In the Lamb, Dave and Darlene ]]>
Dear saints in Christ
I have been out of touch with most you since last year. It has been due to problems beyond my control. but I know that there is nothing beyond God's control. I have just been trying to get back email addresses after my hard drive crashed last month. What a loss ? I have been trying to get it back but failed and I have been advised to take it back to USA to get my data back. I finally bought a new H/ drive and started from scratch. I lost all my documents but still hopeful to get them back some day if I can get a system to help me out. So you can tell why my lines of communication had been cut off. Let me thank some of you who helped me by writing me and returning some of the emails. That helped me to get some of you back into my mailing list.
This happed at a time when the Lord was doing great things in our midst. The college and Seminary intake had gone up in an amazing way. As I write we have over twenty applicants to the Masters program, and our college class is estimated at 34 students for the Feb, intake, the biggest class we have ever had at WTC. We are struggling now to find space for them. We are trying to squeeze them into the dorms we have. This will be the first time we have to use the main sanctuary to hold our classes. That will mean the church activities during the weekdays may need adjustments. WE HAVE A GOOD PROBLEM. God is faithful, he has allowed this to happen and cause us to pray and seek his will as to where we should plan to be next year as the student body grows.
The engineers ministry that designed our campus have already come up with the final plan including all the phases. And that has led the ministry to plan a trip to USA to share with you as partners and ask you to help us get the facility that will enable us train his servants for ministry. I would be very happy to send a copy to any one who may want to see the content. just drop me an email and I will send it to you.
I am scheduled to travel to USA with the Ebys (party of three) for three weeks to share with you the plans we have. Would you please spare some time to pray for this project and if you can to give us audience when we come to USA. Our itinerary is ( Feb 20th LV Uganda , be in Chicago Feb 21st; BHM, GA, TN, Jackson Feb 24th ---March 2nd ,
Sat, march 3rd - 5th Northern CA; March 5th PM - -11th Southern; and LV to return to Uganda. It will be a tight trip but worth doing for Christ's sake. Please pray and seek God how we can be better put to work for Him. I am peresonally overwhelmed , God is great , he has a good plan for His work, I believe he is pleased to see this work take off.
Let me know please if you have any questions I am willing to answer them.
Prayer requests.
God bless you, I think that this is one of my shortest emails. Many things are going on , but you are always on our minds.
Emma K. ]]>
Dear friends
Greetings from Uganda. We hope you are all doing fine. I cannot contain my joy to write you and share briefly what the Lord is doing in our midst. Each day comes with challenges and answered prayers. We cannot stop to get amazed at what he is doing. The Lord has continued to grow his work in amazing ways. Looking back to the time this ministry was started brings back memories that will never vanish from our minds. For some of you have been with us from the very beginning can get the picture of what I am trying to share with you.
The past month has been marked with special happenings. having got an accreditation through North West University and Birmingham Theological seminary fills our hearts with joy. We have something to rejoice about. This is one of those despised institutions in Uganda. But one thing I know God is working through this dinky college. Started in a humble way but sure of the one who is leading us. God has been growing us steadily as we look back to the ten years of ministry. The Lord gave us a new site according to the attachment. You can put that site plan in your church and pray for this college. as I write we have 15 applications to the Master's degree program. Amazing, we have not advertised , not even developed a formal application. We are starting the first Master course in January /2007. These are responsible men who have been trying to get schooling outside Uganda. I so excited about this. Tell you what I need to do an additional Master or D.Min to be able teach full-time in this seminary. God is in control , he has showed us that he is in the lead.
The president of Birmingham Seminary will teach our first course this January to launch the program. The Lord is challenging us yet we need to bring this back to him and ask him to provide. We need a bigger facility to cater for the growing student body. We need a bigger library too. That is why I am sending that site plan to you and ask you to and share with others about the need to shift to a new campus. I have also sent the draft budget proposal for the first seven buildings though we are still revising it. The first phase will be able to cater for over 50 students we cannot take care of at the present campus. Then we can grow from that and see what the Lord has in store for us . Do not worry about the SOLAR quotation , it is optional we will use the regular Hydro- power supply. I Will try to follow this with another report once our engineers are done with the final report , but I could not contain my joy as to what the Lord is doing in our midst.
FEB 20 - March 13 th /2007 USA Trip :
I want your prayers to this effect: there is a plan of me to travel to USA for three weeks and share this need with you. I would appreciate your prayers and advice from all of you who have been with us in this ministry. There is a lot to be done and I feel so inadequate to do this , but the one in me is greater than anything in the world. The task is beyond our resources and wisdom, but there is one who owns it and has the capacity to do it. This is the most urgent project at this point. Not forgetting the rest of the ministries that are going on here. We want to thank God that Miriam is back and her return offloads me with much of what I have been doing during her absence like , Micro- finance , helping with the clinic , HIV/AIDS ministry and many other projects including the children's community centre. The time has come for the college to vacate Zana and leave all the other ministries operate there. This is a good problem to face. PRAYxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx,
My family greets you all , we are getting to Christmas and we would like to wish you a blessed one in case I do not write you , but I will try to send another report and let you know about our prospects to visit you in case you are willing to receive us , I am kidding , we have always enjoyed being with you everytime we visit. Only that , I cannot travel with my wife this time , she is in school and the expense too. But all in all we are still together and we love each other more each day
God bless you all
Emma &Allen K. ]]>
Greetings friends
It is always a good thing to know that there are people who partner with us in ministry. And this excites us as a family to love our Lord and serve him. You remain special in our hearts. God receives the glory for what he does in our lives. HE deserves it all. We are weak instruments in his hands. Only chosen by his grace. We want to thank you for your tireless prayers and physical support. Our family continues to grow and serve the living God. It is always goodo to hear from some of you and see things happen because of answered prayers. We believe that you pray for us. We need that more than anything else. WHY ? it is because the one we call upon can do beyond what think or ask. Even a small note to us that you praying for us means a lot to us. We have realized what a great family we have worldwide. We cannot forget to mention you in our prayers as partners in this Kingdom building work. PTL
Westminster College:
We are now in recess. We continue to hear good things taking place in the churches where our students come from. We just got a report from Sudan regarding a new work that our students are planning to start soon. There is a need of evangelical churches in Sudan. More so , reformed churches. It is good to learn that our graduates are teaming up to run this work. Men like Noel, Patrick, Wani , Pius etc are heading this work. Pray for these men. It is always a joy for the teacher to hear that one's students are doing good work. Sam Amule is in charge of work in Northern Uganda. Solomon wuor , a recent graduate has requested us to get him primary school teachers from Uganda. Pray that as Ugandans we may send out missionaries to Sudan, I believe that it is possible. David a graduate of ( 2004) is heading the Mobile school of ministry of wtc. He has done several training missions and the need is great. I am so happy for most of these graduates for taking a step of faith to get wives. What a joy to see the as family members. Robert Mugisha a member of Zana church , just got married and works as our church planter in Namugongo. Last week the Lord provided the final funds we needed to purchase land for that church plant. I can go on and on regarding our students.
Plans are under way for a team from USA that will make the architectural plans for the future Seminary. Pray for this short term missionaries. they will be in the country from Oct. 10- 20th to design the campus. I request you to start thinking and praying as to how God can use you in this project. You are our ambassadors. please share this vision with the rest of your friends. We are in a continent that needs theological training. There is much church planting going with little training of the ministers of the word. There is no Reformed graduate seminary in the whole of East and central Africa. That is why all of us ended up in USA. and we do thank God for that. HE did it for a purpose to challenge us and to introduce us to more friends that would partner with us.
The Ebys moving to Uganda this coming month. We are grateful to God for their commitment to come to Uganda and help with the development of the seminary. The Ebys have been partners with us since the early 90s and have had a passion for theological training in Africa. Two of us have lived in their California home while we were going to Seminary. And that developed lasting bonding in ministry. Pray for their smooth integration into the Uganda culture.
Church :
The church continues to grow. When you see men and women moving into planting other churches , it is a good sign of growth. There is a multiplication of disciples. That excites us. We have seen the Lord's blessings on this ministry amidst troubles, as you know those are inevitable. We have to go through this. It is encouraging to see some of the kids we started with some year back serving in the church ministries.
Children's community project:
See the photo attached for this new ministry. Those are kids in our lower grades i did not take the upper grades, i will do that next time. The little kids come in the morning and the older ones have their classes in the afternoons. the building was roofed just yesterday and we hope to get it ready by Sept for us to cater for these kids. PTL
We have a school for the disadvantaged children in our community. This was started in May. It was a need we saw in the community. These are kids that had no one to help. Some of them are orphans. The Lord touched some friends in USA and helped us with support for one year. And as I write we have 75 kids. The Bible is central each day before they begin any day of class. Some of the kids we started with some years back are teaching as volunteers with an allowance.They are doing is out of a grateful hearts. These youth include Aidah, Harriet , Amir , Susan among others. WE decided to recruit Christians for this work.
As we were thinking of where to teach them from after the college resumes, the Lord provided some funds to begin constructing a three roomed building for these kids. This is under construction and will be in use by august. Let me try to send you the photo of our construction to share with you the joy of serving our God.
Micro -finance program;
More businesses are being started in different churches and we have opened it up to other churches outside the PCU. There is hope given to the disadvantaged families that had no skills to acquire jobs. Even those whose income could not sustain their families. They are is a smile one can recognize for those that are doing well with this money. The Lord is pleased to add to our fund. we hope that we can even open up to over 100 businesses this year. Pray for the team to be sensitive to the applications. This is the Lord's money that needs to be guarded with integrity. IF you are faithful in little the Lord promises to entrust one with much.
Health Clinic.
The 22 member team from USA just returned two weeks ago after serving for four days providing free-medical services to our communities in Uganda. It is unfortunate to see some people missing out. But fortunate for some who accessed this free medication. What a blessing to see Christ touching people through medicine. The hundreds of people that turned out reminded us of Christ's ministry when he was here on earth. Multitudes would throng to where he was. The sad part of it is that some never got the eternal healing that so much counts. It was a time of sharing the good news of the kingdom too. All in all God has strategically positioned us in Zana to stand for him as he works through us. Thank you so much for those of you who came and those that supported these medical workers to come and serve in Uganda. Our clinic continues to grow. We are so grateful to the brethren from the Chicago area that sent us the clinic equipments. Thank you again.
Radio ministry :
Thank you for all the support you have given us through prayers and sending us manual and literature for the this ministry. My wife has been recruited to be a presenter on this radio where I teach from Mon- to Friday. She does the children's program too. I do think that she has finally found where to reach thousands of kids with the Bible. She is still going to college. The college owns the Radio and it is the only Radio committed to the inerrancy of Scripture. It is distinct in that there is no business element to it apart from teaching and preaching God's Word. I have gotten into loving it because much has been taught on other radios that isn't the gospel at all. Too much of what we hear is the wealth and health , name and claim it gospel. And that sells in Africa with the many needs we have. Thank God for Radio ABC , that has come in as a voice to proclaim the truth. We get to hear the outstanding Reformed evangelicals in the world of Christianity in the world. Respected men and women that have been tested. I really thank God for the ministry of Dr,O Palmer Robertson the Vice- Chancellor of this College. And we are privileged as a church to have him preach at Zana once every month.
I have much to report, only time limits me with the nature of work we do. Some people do ask , "Where do you get time to do all of this ? " only the grace of God and the people God has raised up to stand with us do help a lot. The key is found in delegation. I know some time we burn out , but it is better to burn out for Christ. I will speak like Dr, David Jeremiah , pastor in SD , who says ' I want to die as enthusiastic as Caleb was in the OT." He was still strong in his 80s as he was 40 year when he went to spy the promised land. I do not know about you. The Lord can renew even our old age and use it as though we have never served.
God bless you all , please respond to this email if you get it.
In Him, who gives life to all
Emma , Allen , Joshua and Joel Kiwanuka , ]]>
Greetings friends from the beautiful nation of Uganda. I am happy to wish you a happy Easter as I give you a brief report of our Mission to Kalangalo. It started out well with a team of 23 of us , Students and instructors. The Lord's hand was upon us all the way and back. This is one of those missions that I will always look back to having trusted God all the way. I kept asking the brother ( George ) who led us regarding our place of residence. HE kept on telling me that he had already secure a house for the team. For your information , I last visited Kalangalo in 1993. I Was then riding a motor bike with George to go and visit his late father. George had migrated to Kampala and has a good business there. The Lord laid it on his heart to go back and take the gospel to his home village. We are talking of a poor village more like Bundibugyo.
What a surprise ? Only to reach in this poor little trading center to find that we were to stay at an old moldy building. We had taken some mattresses and that was it , no beds. Some students had to share the mattresses. Some slept in the church van and two in Curtis's van. No electricity , it gets dark so fast. mud walled houses with malnourished kids. Having reached , I tried to get to a toilet and the stench hit, I held it for sure and started to look for something better. I could not find any so were all the people who were with us. This is very dangerous for the people's health in this area. The people were welcoming as most Ugandans are known for that. We could not fit every body in the house that George had secured. Bosco , one of our students started to look for more housing in the area. More like Joseph looking for a place Mary to have baby Jesus. For those of you who know Bosco is an amazing guy, he just went out asking people house from house. He finally got to this retired nurse , her husband died some time ago, She allowed us to use one of her room. During day she uses it as a clinic to attend to the health needs of the people. That was a relief, Curtis and I were treated in this "Five star" village hotel room. The whole night I kept on smelling penicillin. But this was God's providence, God opened this house for us and two more students whom she allowed to sleep in her living room. Here we are , strangers, not knowing where to lay our heads, yet the Father had prepared a widow's house like what he did for Elisha in the OT. Here was a Lydia in the NT taking care of the needy poor missionaries coming to kalangalo. That was a sign enough to confirm to me that there are souls to save in that poor community. I was so happy to find that she had a clean latrine ,the only clean one in the area. This widow warmed our bathing water every night and in the morning. Tell me if that was not God ahead of us. Before getting this room I wished that we had tents. But God has the tents prepared. In every situation, God has a plan and every situation will vary from the other.
After my faith was lifted , I was ready to preach that evening and I did for sure. God saved people and I am going to send you the photo of the people who came to the Lord during our stay in Kalangalo. In the morning hours preached house to house more like garden to garden, these are farmers. They have big chunks of land and that makes the houses to be scattered all over. We really got tired but it was worth a sweat. The children have almost nothing except the single set of torn clothing that they put on their backs. I could not believe my eyes that there were still such poor people within a distance of 70 miles from the capital city of Uganda. I can go on and on to tell you the whole story but time does not allow me to do that.
I was so touched by the ministry of the word by our students. I can now rest assured that we have fruit through them. Their understanding of the gospel is now a reality. continue praying for them. They have come to learn that sharing the gospel is our responsibility but saving , regenerating the heart belongs to God. So you should not sweat to change someone. just do your part , God will make his word bear fruit.
Let me share what the Lord has laid on my heart for kalangalo. We are not only going to share the gospel in words. We need to touch people through works of mercy. Last Sunday we asked Zana church members to go and clean up their closets, to contribute towards digging latrines for this community. They have no latrines and that is very risky to their health. Many diseases can be prevented if we can help in this project. I was told that it will cost only $50 to dig 30ft and the people would get the logs and raise mud walls around it. We are praying to take on this project as a means of sharing the gospel. I do not think that we will witness to sick people and get anywhere. Jesus identified the needs and was there to meet them whenever an opportunity arose.
More to tell you , George's Dad died last year and he inherited his land. George has offered part of his land for the church building. What a blessing. If this church is built, it will become a center of God's transforming presence in this poor community. A small school can also be built here to help these needy kids. This is where it will all begin , Jesus loves these people and that is why he sent us to them. Pray for the young man James Mubiru , he oversees the church during the week. George visits the church every other Sunday. Edward sebunza an elder from New city does visit too and preaches. James would like to come to WTC. His only draw-back is that he doesn't have even a grade school diploma. we can only accommodate him in the Mobile school program. We are praying that he can come for two weeks at a time and David kabale will instruct him in our local language as he learns English too. HE needs to learn it since we have no theological books written in our languages.
I want wish you a happy Easter, The restoration of our great shepherd from the grave is a powerful event to move us attempt great things for that great Savior whose death we carry along in our bodies. " I am crucified with Christ , and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me " We are not our own. No wonder the world does not understand us.
May the good Lord bless you this Easter
In the Lord
Emma K ]]>
Hi All
Just wanted to ask for your church to pray for us as we leave tomorrow for our college mission week in a village to proclaim the wonderful message of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are ue to leave Monday morning with our students. We need to depend on God and nothing else. I personally would need your prayers as a I lead the team. We intend to leave fellowship in place. One of the brothers in the Lord from one of our churches in Kampala was born in this area and has already offered a pieve of land for the church plant. What a blessing that is, I am so encouraged that Ugandans are learning to give towards missions. Pray and pray , may God's goal be ours , for desires not that sinners die in their sins, but rather repent and turn to Christ. so I will not be on mail until Friday. The place we are going to has nothing in as far as intenernet access is concerned. Very spoiled , Paul never had it nor Jesu , but these are the times.
God bless you all
Emma K
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